Automobile drivers often do not give their full attention to operating their cars in the safest possible manner. Any of a number of preoccupations (i.e., thinking about personal or business matters, looking at the scenery while driving, putting on make-up, etc.) may divert a driver's attention and cause the driver to fail to perform one of many tasks necessary for safe driving. Reducing the number of necessary tasks that a driver is required to perform for safe driving will help limit the effect of driver inattention and increase car safety.
One important driver task necessary for safe driving is the turning on of the car's headlights when the windshield wipers are used. Rainy conditions result in limited driver visibility due to both the rain impacting the windshield and, if during daylight hours, the dusky conditions often associated with rain. These condition demand that car headlights be used in conduction with the windshield wipers, even in the daytime. During rainy weather, a driver will naturally turn-on the windshield wipers to clear his windshield of the rain. However, during daytime hours car drivers are not accustomed to turning on their headlights and may inadvertently forget to turn-on the headlights. In an attempt to increase driving safety and make drivers aware of car safety, many states now have laws requiring the use of headlights when windshield wipers are used.
To ensure that headlights are turned on when using the windshield wipers, many prior art control circuits have been developed to automatically turn the headlights on when the windshield wipers are turned-on and to likewise turn-off the headlights when the windshield wipers are turned-off. This direct operational connecting between the headlights and the windshield wipers is a helpful design feature which increases driver safety. The problem with this type of control circuit is that during intermittent rainy weather a driver in response to the changing rain conditions will periodically turn on and off his windshield wipers. This turning on and off of the windshield wipers results in the headlights being turned on and off, but during this type of weather the headlights should remain constantly on, despite the windshield wipers being periodically turned off, for optimum driver safety.
Recent prior art control circuits have been designed that actuate the headlights in response to turning on the windshield wipers, maintain the headlights on when the wipers are turned off, and then automatically turn-of the headlights when the car ignition is turned-off. This more recent type of control circuit ensures that the headlights remain constantly on during intermittent rainy weather, resulting in a better safety feature. The problem with the prior art control circuits of this type, and one probable reason that this important safety device is not more widely used, is that they are unnecessarily complicated, expensive, and not easily retrofitted.
Therefore, there is a need for a simple, economical, and easily retrofitted control circuit that will actuate the headlights in response to turning on the windshield wipers, maintain the headlights on when the wipers are turned-off, and then automatically turn-off the headlights when the ignition switch is turned-off.